Misdiagnosis of Wheezing

Misdiagnosis and Wheezing

Sinusitis is overdiagnosed: There is a tendency to give a diagnosis of sinusitis, when the condition is really a harmless complication of another infection, such as a common cold.

Whooping cough often undiagnosed: Although most children in the Western world have been immunized against whooping cough (also called "pertussis"), this protection wears off after about 15 years. Thus, any teen or adult with a persistent cough may actually have whooping cough. This is particularly dangerous for babies too young to be vaccinated, and any un-vaccinated children. Whooping cough can be fatal to an infant. The cough symptoms of whooping cough is usually productive initially, but then becomes a persistent dry cough, lasting up to 100 days. Elderly grandparents may also be a reservoir of undiagnosed whooping cough.

Chronic lung diseases hard to diagnose: Some of the chronic lung diseases are difficult to diagnose. Even the well-knowns conditions such as asthma or lung cancer often fail to be diagnosed early. Some of the chronic lung diseases with diagnostic difficulties include asthma (perhaps surprisingly), COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, mesothelioma, smoker's cough, AIDS-related respiratory conditions (see AIDS), chronic pneumonia, and other respiratory diseases. Rare possibilities include diseases like psittacosis (bird-related lung infection). See other types of chronic lung diseases.

Severe asthma is a medical emergency: Severe asthma is a life threatening condition that is resistant to standard treatment and requires intensive medication to overcome the obstruction to the air passages. Studies suggest that asthma is often underdiagnosed. In elderly patients, diseases such as bronchitis or emphysema are relatively common. Proper diagnosis in these patients can be further complicated by the difficulty some older people have performing pulmonary function tests. However, it is important to determine the extent of reversibility of the airflow obstruction. In children younger than age 5, the most common cause of asthmatic symptoms is a viral upper respiratory tract infection.

Poor prognosis for small cell cancer of lung: Small cell cancer of the lung is the leading cause of death. It is an undifferentiated tumour, which usually involves the right upper lobe of the lung parenchyma. It can easily spread through blood to distant organs. At the time of diagnosis the tumour is well spread to other tissues, as the tumour is highly invasive. The tumour is associated with the production of hormones adrenocorticotropins or ACTH. Smoking is the risk factor for the formation of the tumour. The tumour is sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Surgery is usually not a treatment option even when the tumour is small. With treatment the survival can be upto one year.

More about Misdiagnosis

• Causes of Wheezing
• Misdiagnosis Overview
• How Common is Misdiagnosis?
• Over-Diagnosed Diseases
• Under-Diagnosed Diseases
• Types of Misdiagnosis
• Wrong Type Misdiagnosis
• Why Does Misdiagnosis Occur?
• Difficult Diseases to Diagnose
• More premium medical articles ...

 » Next page: STRIDOR (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)

Rate This Website

What do you think about the features of this website? Take our user survey and have your say:

Website User Survey

Medical Tools & Articles:

Next articles:

• STRIDOR (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)
• WHEEZING (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)
• Stridor & Wheezing (In a Page: Signs and Symptoms)
• Stridor (In A Page: Pediatric Signs and Symptoms)
• Wheezing (In A Page: Pediatric Signs and Symptoms)

Tools & Services:

• Bookmark this page
• Symptom Search
• Symptom Checker
• Medical Dictionary
• Give your feedback

Medical Articles:

• Disease & Treatments Search
• Misdiagnosis Center
• Full list of interesting articles

Forums & Message Boards

• Ask or answer a question at the Boards:
• I cannot get a diagnosis. Please help.
• Tell us your medical story.
• Share your misdiagnosis story.
• What is the best treatment for my condition?
• See all the Boards.

Enter your search terms Submit search form
Search The Web Search wrongdiagnosis.com

Common Health Mistakes

Symptom
Checker

Search Specialists by State and City